Assassin’s Creed is an action/adventure film based on the wildly popular video game franchise of the same name.

It tells the story of career criminal Callum Lynch, played by Michael Fassbender, who is rescued from his own execution by Abstergo Industries, an organisation with mysterious links to the Knights Templar Order.

He is then forced to participate in the Animus Project and relive the memories of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha, an assassin in the time of the Spanish Inquisition.

As Lynch continues to experience Aguilar’s memories, he begins to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to confront the Templars — age-old enemies of the Assassins — in the present day.

The film will be set in the same universe as the video games but features an original story that expands the series’ mythology.

The film stars Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson and Michael K. Williams and is directed by Justin Kurzel, written by Michael Lesslie, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage.

Marion Cotillard on her way to Ely Cathedral to film Assassin's Creed.

Plus there's some local interest.

Watch out for the scenes shot in Ely Cathedral, which was a backdrop for much of the 15th century action in the film.

The shoot took place in summer 2015 and many of the stars were snapped in and around Ely, walking onto the set.

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The “scientific explanation” for the story is that through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender) experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain.

Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organisation in the present day.

Pictured: Marion Cotillard as Sophia Rikkin. (Image: PA Photo/Fox UK)

In an interview with comingSoon.net, Fassbender says: ““I just loved the idea of Templars versus Assassins.”

“This idea of an elite group of people struggling with the idea of free will and these sort of rebels to that elite force trying to struggle for humanity, essentially. And the idea that the original Assassins were Adam and Eve and they picked the apple in the Garden, was really interesting.”

Fassbender takes on two roles for the film: the present day Callum Lynch and his assassin ancestor Aguilar, who lives in 1491 Spain. When asked how he kept the two characters separate, he joked: “Well, one doesn’t say a lot and the other does.”

Jeremy Irons taking a break at Ely Cathedral during the filming of Assassin's Creed.

“Basically in this story, you have somebody who doesn’t realise where he’s coming from. He doesn’t have a lineage he can feel a belonging to. That’s our modern-day protagonist, Cal. He doesn’t realize he’s an Assassin; he’s a bit of a lost soul. He’s always been drifting in and out of correctional facilities. Then, of course, Aguilar is very much somebody that belongs to the Creed. He has a cause, he’s sort of been following that cause. He belongs to it.”

The two characters’ lives are linked together through process of “regression,” wherein Callum is strapped into a machine called the Animus, by the shadowy Abstergo Industries, and relives his ancestors’ memories.

These dips into the past via ancestral DNA were the aspect of the game that first got Fassbender interested in making the film series.

“I just thought if you’re doing a fantasy film, the first thing about it was to have something that was seeded in some sort of scientific world,” Fassbender says. “What I mean is basically the idea of DNA memory. I just thought that it was a really interesting catch, and I thought that it was a really plausible theory. And I think if you can bring something like that to a fantastical world, it hooks the audience in even more, and makes the journey even more immersive.”

Other actors in the films also play two parts: their present day characters and their 15th century ancestors.

Michael K. Williams plays both Moussa and Baptiste. Moussa is a descendant of Baptiste, a Haitian Assassin who uses voodoo poison against his enemies. Williams said, “Moussa definitely has some assassin skills. Although I think he prefers to use trickery and magic and voodoo to slay his opponents as opposed to just hand-to-hand combat, but if it needed to be he could take it to the mat.” Baptiste previously appeared in Assassin’s Creed: Liberation.

Additionally, Matias Varela appears as Emir and Yusuf. Emir is a descendant of Yusuf, a Middle Eastern Assassin who uses a bow and arrow, along with a sword and knives, against his enemies. Michelle Lin portrays Lin, a descendant of an assassin, and another test subject at Abstergo, while James Sobol Kelly appears as Raymond, a priest. Denis Ménochet also appears as the head of Abstergo security.